Music Therapy Moments
I took a course in DIR/Floortime from Dr. John Carpente in January. If you are unfamiliar with DIR/Floortime by Stanley Greenspan, I encourage you to do some investigation of these concepts - basically, it fits into my professional philosophy of humanism and sensory integration with touches of behavioral theory very well and is something that I have always been interested in learning more about. This year was that year (actually, it was last year, but the course had to be postponed due to COVID concerns). I am pleased that I used my conference monies for this course. It has enriched my practice and reminded me of things that I have not thought about for a long time.
So, I have been challenging myself to find the play moments in my music therapy groups lately. I've found them. This is not one of those moments, however.
My client is a young man who will be graduating this year. He's been with us for about two years now. He has always been very responsive to music therapy and to all the TMEs presented to him. He is one of my few individual clients because of all of his responses to music. On Friday, we were spending some time together in the music therapy room. He started off playing the keyboard and then indicated that he wanted to play the drum set. No problem - in individual sessions, the clients show me what they need and I fit my therapy to what they need. So, we moved into the drum set area. I brought the keyboard with me since the drum set is a really something that only one person should play at a time (no judgement if you play it with two people, but with this student, I am not needed on the drum set). I sat down on the floor and started playing the keyboard along with my client's drumming.
The drumming pattern started off in a familiar manner - two hands on the mounted tom drums - at first, tandem playing and then switching to alternate playing. This went on for about five minutes. I played a variety of chord progressions at the tempo set by the client. He engaged in eye contact with me as I played with him.
After the first five minutes, he switched to playing the ride cymbal. His pattern became several strikes on the cymbal and then waiting to hear the sounds fade. I switched my music as well. As he struck the cymbal, I played a Gmajor9 chord at his tempo and taking other cues from how he was playing (accents, dynamics, etc.). When he stopped striking the cymbal, I resolved to a Cmajor chord and held it until the cymbal sound stopped. He chuckled.
He returned to the cymbal striking and I returned to the Gmajor9 - sometimes it was a 13 sometimes a tone cluster, but G was the primary root of the chord. It always resolved (eventually) to the Cmajor chord, but we took some long detours to get there at times - suspensions, appoggiatura everywhere, etc. I started ending the sequence with a C stinger to indicate conclusion. His chuckle turned into a full out belly laugh, accompanied by sideways glances and tricks to get me to play without him. I only fell for those one time...well, maybe. We continued with this pattern for the rest of the session - 20 minutes straight, and we both were reluctant to leave.
So, what was happening in that session that made it a music therapy moment? First, the interaction was completely rooted in the music. Without the drum and the keyboard the belly laughing and eye contact would not have happened. We needed the instruments to bring us to this type of interaction. The interaction was prompted by the client every single time. Some clients need to have the therapist be follower. Others get too much attention in other places and do not need to be controlling the interaction. This particular client is still learning that communication is often a two-way street and that he has important ideas and valuable contributions to make. He does not seem used to being listened to as an equal partner or as a leader. In the music, he can be the one who shapes the music the way he wants it - if I can relinquish the "leader" role. That's the key - I have to be able to step away from the role of "leader/therapist" to be "follower/listener/musician" for clients who need to be heard. For clients who are, for the want of a better word, a bit spoiled and who are in charge of all other aspects of their lives, I retain the role of "leader" until we can transform the relationship into "partnership." Second, there was such joy in the laughter of the client. He found joy in our musical interaction. That alone is worth the moniker "music therapy moment."
Music Therapy Moments are the reasons that I am still in this profession after 28 years.
I hope that you have some great Music Therapy Moments this week as you go into your music therapy life.
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